I’m having a staycation this week and I had the fortune of watching the Ascent of Woman hosted by Dr. Amanda Foreman. Foreman brings to life a plethora of amazing and influential women who made their voices heard and exerted considerable power in their worlds. The entire series is completely fascinating and it made me realize how very important it is for women to write about women. So many historical females have been marginalized, pushed to the edges of history or written out completely. Female voices in history were never silenced for no reason, they had something to say that the powerful male majority didn’t agree with, and personally I’m rather interested in what their message was. Women’s stories need to be told, they deserve to be told, not only because they were people with complex lives, but also as an inspiration to women today.
Writers such as Stephanie Thornton, Michelle Moran and Stephanie Dray, and historians like Dr. Foreman are bringing those women to life. There is something almost mystical about women telling the story of other women. I do not negate that male authors can expertly tell tales of women, or that female authors can craft beautiful stories about men, but there is something to be said about the connection of women then and women now. While the cultural and historical context is different, there is still the knowledge of what it is to be a woman, the fears, pressure and struggle for equality. Sharing their stories creates our own narrative, lays down the building blocks of what brought us to today. While these novels are historical fiction, they still give a renewed voice to women who were laid silent for so long. Whether or not those new voices are 100% accurate isn’t as important as the fact that they are getting another chance to speak. Ancient women such as the Empress Theodora, Martha Jefferson, Boudica, Cleopatra Selene, Nefertiti, Borte of the Mongols and Hatshepsut are critical stories in the female narrative of history. Their stories are just as significant as the more well known males of history, they deserve to be told and I am so in love with modern women reaching back in time to bring those ancient women into our world again.
Learn about these women, read about them, write about them and search for others that were swept under the proverbial carpet.
Thanks for stopping by!
– Erin
http://www.dramandaforeman.com/
http://www.stephanie-thornton.com/